McCain: U.S. should rebuke Egypt's Morsi

The Obama administration should aggressively rebuke Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi for a decree that grants him sweeping powers, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday.

The United States should "renounce the statement and the movement that [Morsi] just made, allow the judiciary to function... to assume this kind of power is unacceptable to the United States of America," McCain said on "Fox News Sunday." "First, condemn it."

The senator, who's the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, framed the issue in terms of American taxes and American aid to the country.

The administration should say "this is not what the United States of America and taxpayers expect, and our dollars will be directly related to the progress towards democracy which you promised to the people of Egypt when your party and you were elected president," McCain said.

McCain warned that Egypt's trajectory could lead Morsi to become a dictator, to another military takeover of power or simply "continued chaos."

The former Republican presidential candidate said that the United States had leverage in the form of aids, debt forgiveness, a deal with the IMF and “marshaling world opinion.”

On Thursday, Morsi issued a decree which granted him authority to make decisions without judicial review. The country has been operating on a provisional constitution since 2011.